I was thinking: What if, instead of slugging it out against the PCs in the glass works, Tsuto decided to lure the PCs down into the catacombs? I have this image in mind of Tsuto teasing the PCs with music from his pipe but keeping out of reach until he enters the Catacombs of Wrath. Then it becomes more like a bizarre chase scene as Tsuto tries to lead them into all the danger zones. I figure Tsuto has to be at least familiar with what's down there because of Naulia, so why not have him use it to his advantage? I think that the PCs having a rabbit to chase around will be more entertaining than "exploring for the sake of exploring". They would have a more concrete reason to go into the depths. Of course this could make things more dangerous, but that doesn't bother me at all. Does anyone see any potential story issues with this?
You do realize Tsuto is a high enough level that if used intelligently, he'll kill off the party unless he's unlucky. There is a reason these suggested tactics are imposed - so the party can face a higher-XP encounter without dying outright (and low-level characters can so very easily die).
You do realize Tsuto is a high enough level that if used intelligently, he'll kill off the party unless he's unlucky. There is a reason these suggested tactics are imposed - so the party can face a higher-XP encounter without dying outright (and low-level characters can so very easily die).
I see that. But using him this way he would actually be engaging the party less than before. My main purpose is to put a fire under the PC and give them a more immediate reason to explore the Catacombs of Wrath. My reasoning is that once Tsuto is without goblins the last thing he would want is to stand there and trade blows with a whole party. On a side note I also have future plans for Tsuto (as it turns out one of the PCs just happens to have a back story that would allow me to make him Tsuto's uncle)so I want to stretch the encounter a bit more and make him more of a dangerous foe. If the PCs happen to nab him before he can get to the catacombs is fine with me (which they probably will). To make sure the PCs get all the info they need, I'll even have Tsuto accidentally drop his journal in his flight so they won't even have to beat him first to have it.
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That's your call, BFTDGuy. But 1st/2nd level PCs don't have many resources, and having Tsuto draw them into the dangerous encounters means that each of those die rolls could be closer to TPK.
I also wanted to give the PCs a good reason to explore the Catacombs, even though the most obvious thing to do is run off to stop the ritual at Thistletop. Mayor Deverin was shown the journal, and when she heard that there were horrid monsters living under her town, she asked them to investigate. Since they'd grown fond of Sandpoint (not to mention that it was home for two of them), they readily agreed.
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It sounds awesome! Although, yes, this would be extremely deadly for the PCs. Just keep in mind when playing Tsuto that he's not trying to kill the PCs or fight them. They just happened to stumble into the glassworks as he was figuring out what to do with his sister. His main objective is to get her out of there, not get into a fight to the death with the PCs. Unless he knows he can win.
In my game they didn't even fight him. After scaring the goblins to the basement they assumed they were trapped down there and took their time to check the rest of the glass works out before they went downstairs. It gave Tsuto ample time to grab Ameiko and head towards Thistletop. They just encountered him again last session.
If you're interested in story development with him further down the boards are plenty of good threads about his trial in Magnimar (if he survives.)
UPDATE: Tsuto was captured and interrogated. One of the characters wanted to see him publicly executed but was told by Mayor Deverin that all prisoners are taken to Magnimar for criminal trials. The character was having none of that (she wanted blood!) then whipped up a lynch mob and took Tsuto from the garrison. They took him to the cliffs and hanged him (after a nice little monologue from Tsuto). That's where we left off.
I tweaked the Tsuto encounter slightly; instead of groggily waking up I had him hear the fight and plan a quick strategy. I gave him two goblins; he turned a table sideways to block the hall in the basement and then filled the area in front with viscious goblin caltrops. I also buffed him with a potion of Owl's Wisdom and Barksin, giving him +4 to his AC.
When the party came around the corner from the stair he and the goblins fired their short bows. He actually scored a critical hit on our bard which was lucky.
Unfortunately the wizard put the goblins to sleep and our paladin, ranger and cleric and fighter plowed through the caltrops and climbed over the table, giving Tsuto some free attacks. Then the wizard dazed him, and Tsuto failed his save - THREE ROUNDS in a row. Terrible luck. If it wasn't for his good AC he would have been dead. Tsuto was down to 5 HP, made his save, but he was surrounded on all sides by four characters, so he did an acrobatics to leap over the dwarf fighter and attempted to negate all of the OOO's - and scored a 25 on his roll beating the CMD's. He then fled. They got a few more attacks and another spell attempt but he dodged and saved before vanishing down the tunnel.
Now they are on their way to Thistletop, but he'll be better prepared this time.
I tweaked the Tsuto encounter slightly; instead of groggily waking up I had him hear the fight and plan a quick strategy. I gave him two goblins; he turned a table sideways to block the hall in the basement and then filled the area in front with viscious goblin caltrops. I also buffed him with a potion of Owl's Wisdom and Barksin, giving him +4 to his AC.
When the party came around the corner from the stair he and the goblins fired their short bows. He actually scored a critical hit on our bard which was lucky.
Unfortunately the wizard put the goblins to sleep and our paladin, ranger and cleric and fighter plowed through the caltrops and climbed over the table, giving Tsuto some free attacks. Then the wizard dazed him, and Tsuto failed his save - THREE ROUNDS in a row. Terrible luck. If it wasn't for his good AC he would have been dead. Tsuto was down to 5 HP, made his save, but he was surrounded on all sides by four characters, so he did an acrobatics to leap over the dwarf fighter and attempted to negate all of the OOO's - and scored a 25 on his roll beating the CMD's. He then fled. They got a few more attacks and another spell attempt but he dodged and saved before vanishing down the tunnel.
Now they are on their way to Thistletop, but he'll be better prepared this time.
Kool. I always try to have my NPCs escape if they can. A live NPC plotting in the background is way more interesting than a dead one.
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One of my players who'd played up through the Glassworks before was metagaming this REALLY hard, and it pissed me off so I changed it. They are going to discover a contrite Tsuto. A Tsuto who asked his sister to the Glassworks to try and find some way to wiggle out of his commitments to the Enemy. Of course, when they find him he'll be tied up and being bled into the runewell to create sinspawn. When they rescue him, he'll revela that they took her to Thistletop after they discovered his betrayal.
Then the wizard dazed him, and Tsuto failed his save - THREE ROUNDS in a row.Nitpick:
After a creature has been dazed by this spell, it is immune to the effects of this spell for 1 minute.